The present invention is useful in bioanalytical applications and is generally directed to detectable chemiluminescent acridinium ester labels having hydrophilic modifiers; to compositions, complexes and/or conjugates which include such labels; and to processes for performing bioanalytical assays for target analytes which use such labels.
Acridinium esters are extremely useful chemiluminescent labels that have been extensively used in the field of immunoassays as well as nucleic acid assays. Each of the following patent documents is both (a) incorporated herein by reference in its respective entirety; and (b) directed to varying aspects of bioanalytical applications of acridinium ester compounds. EP0263657; U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,181; EP0353971; EP0361817; U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,192; U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,932; U.S. Pat. No. 5,227,489; U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,070; EP0617288; WO9421823; U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,752; EP0661270; U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,556; WO9527702; U.S. Pat. No. 5,538,901; U.S. Pat. No. 5,595,875; EP0754178; U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,426; U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,500; U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,074; U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,887; WO9854574; U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,894; WO9911813; WO0009487; EP0982298; EP0988551; WO0031543; EP1009852; U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,591; EP1049933; U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,800; WO0109372 and EP1104405. Certain particular detectable chemiluminescent acridinium ester labels lacking hydrophilic modifiers are well-known in the artxe2x80x94e.g., 2xe2x80x2,6xe2x80x2-dimethyl-4xe2x80x2-[N-succinimidyloxycarbonyl]phenyl-10-methyl-9-acridine carboxylate and 2xe2x80x2,6xe2x80x2-dimethyl-4xe2x80x2-[N-succinimidyloxycarbonyl]phenyl-10-sulfopropyl-9-acridine carboxylate {each label being hereinafter referred to as, respectively, xe2x80x9cDMAE-NHSxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cNSP-DMAE-NHSxe2x80x9d}xe2x80x94and are being commercialized for immunoassay instrument systems available from Bayer Corporation, Business Group Diagnostics, 511 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, N.Y. 10591-5097. For the reader""s convenience, the structure of each of these compounds is depicted below. 